There’s ample evidence of how heated things can get on the race track between drivers – most recently seen in the brief fight between Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.
But if they don’t care to get physical, they can always throw out the middle finger like they’re an average driver who was just cut off on the highway. Right?
As Dale Earnhardt Jr. explained to NASCAR reporter Jeff Gluck, there’s a time and a place for a middle finger’s appearance, and according to “unspoken” driver etiquette, it can’t be to a more veteran driver.
From the 12 Questions with Dale Earnhardt Jr. podcast on JeffGluck.com:
“If they’re much, much younger than you, you can totally flip them off. If they’re the same age as you or have ran more than four or five seasons, you cannot flip them off.
I flipped off (now-retired NASCAR driver) Shawna Robinson once in practice, and she wrecked me in the race. She never said she meant it on purpose, but she was very upset with me in practice.”
Some drivers don’t discriminate when it comes to flipping someone off – like recent Kobalt 400 winner Martin Truex Jr., who told Gluck during his 12 Questions interview that “it’s not personal,” but if someone “pisses you off, you show ‘em the middle finger.”
But as Earnhardt explained, there are dangers to giving the bird to an elder.
“You hear about (NASCAR Hall of Famer) Rusty Wallace and all those other guys — you get flipped off, especially by someone younger than you? You just go on attack mode. You lose your mind. So it’s a very seldom-used expression on the track and there’s some etiquette there on when to use it and when not to use it.”
